Booklet: "History of Animals." 1882

• Main Author: New York Popular Publishing Company (Creator)
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Bridgeport History Center, Bridgeport Public Library 1882
• Subjects: African elephant; Asiatic elephant; Captive elephants; Captive wild animals; Circus; Circus animals; Circus > United States > History; Curiosities and wonders; Books; P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth; and the Great London Circus combined with Sanger's Royal British Menagerie; Nubian; polar bear
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/110002:3529

Booklet entitled "History of Animals, Leading Curiosities, and Features within the consolidated P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth, the Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal British Menagerie, and the International Allied Show" for 1882. The booklet was published for the 1882 season, when P. T. Barnum was in partnership with James A. Bailey and J. L. Hutchinson, and their show represented four entities: Barnum's Greatest Show; Great London Circus; Sanger's Royal British Menagerie; and Grand International Allied Show. This 30-page souvenir booklet would have been sold to circus-goers. The cover features an elephant seated, its trunk grasping another elephant. Although this is for 1882, the year P.T. Barnum acquired Jumbo the elephant, the elephant on the cover is an Asiatic elephant, rather than an African elephant. Illustrated within are colored images of a giraffe and ostrich, tigers, a rhinoceros, a camel, a zebra, a polar bear, a Nubian buffalo, bears, antelope, an elephant, lions, a leopard, an alligator, and the happy family. The back of the book features "An Incomplete List of the Features with P.T. Barnum's and the Great London Shows." Barnum is best known for his involvement with the circus that bore his name, but his circus ventures came about when he was in his 60s. The first show was called P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus. Railroads propelled the circus to success, making it easier to reach a number of locations, and the intake was significant. Barnum then opened the New York Hippodrome with similar acts. In the 1880s, he encountered competition from other circuses. A merger between Barnum's show and the Great London Show of Cooper, Bailey, and Hutchinson formed the Barnum and London Circus. Negotiations in 1887 formed the Barnum and Bailey circus. The name remained until 1919 when it became the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It came to an end in May 2017 when the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus ceased performances after 146 years.